Purpose and Response
- Lawrence Taylor
- Aug 2
- 3 min read
When I was in high school, I had a thought-provoking, intellectually stimulating English teacher who asked us early in the year to write an essay on the meaning of life. That’s a tough assignment for a group of 17-year-old boys facing being drafted and sent to the jungles of southeast Asia. I struggled, wrote, struggled, and rewrote, and knew I was nowhere close to an answer.
Judging by what we see around us, I surmise that most people, if they’re honest with themselves, would say the meaning of life is to eat, drink, and be merry, or amass wealth, or gain power and prestige.
We were created for a purpose. We were created to reflect God’s image, to be the imago Dei.
So God created humans in his image,
in the image of God he created them,
male and female he created them.[1]
Reflecting the divine image involves living in such a way that others see what God is like by observing what we do and say. To do so, we have to be with Jesus, learning from Jesus, how to be like Jesus, because Jesus is the perfect reflection of God. To see Jesus is to see God.
Long ago God spoke to our ancestors in many and various ways by the prophets, 2 but in these last days he has spoken to us by a Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, through whom he also created the worlds.3 He is the reflection of God’s glory and the exact imprint of God’s very being, and he sustainsall things by his powerful word. When he had made purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high, 4 having become as much superior to angels as the name he has inherited is more excellent than theirs.[2]
Jesus is the exact imprint of God’s very being. If we are with Jesus, learning from Jesus to be like Jesus, we will certainly be characterized by a passion for justice, empathy and compassion for those who are weak, starving, displaced, marginalized, sick, homeless, and incarcerated (See Matthew 25), and a burning desire for everyone to know the grace, forgiveness, and love of God.
· An estimated 124,377 adults and 258,673 children (88 humans per hour) have already died due to cuts in US foreign aid.[3] Unless aid is reinstated, 14 million people will die in the next five years.[4]
· The United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Nearly two million people are in local, state, and federal prisons. Most have been convicted of nonviolent crimes.[5]
· As of June 14, 2025, ICE arrested 294,207 people, 93% of whom have no violent convictions. An overwhelming majority are hardworking, tax-paying good neighbors.[6]
· As of January 2024, there were approximately 771,400 homeless individuals in the country.[7]
· Nearly 3,000,000 people have been killed in war in the last decade. As of May 2023, more than 7.6 million children under five in post-9/11 war zones suffered from acute malnutrition.[8]
Does Jesus care?
Do we?
[1] Genesis 1:27 NRSVUE
[2] Hebrews 1:1-4 NRSVUE
[3] As of June 26, 2025. These estimates reflect excess deaths resulting from the US federal government’s discontinuation of USAID funding. Brooke Nichols’ impact trackers suggest that these deaths will continue to rise if USAID funding is not restored. Credit: Impact Counter. Boston University School of Public Health. https://www.bu.edu/sph/news/articles/2025/tracking-anticipated-deaths-from-usaid-funding-cuts/ Accessed 2 August 2025
[4] According to the BBC. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cx2jjpm7zv8o Accessed 2 August 2025
[5] https://www.sentencingproject.org/reports/mass-incarceration-trends/ Accessed 2 August 2025
[6] CATO Institute. https://www.cato.org/blog/65-people-taken-ice-had-no-convictions-93-no-violent-convictions Accessed 2 August 2025
[7] https://www.minneapolisfed.org/article/2025/who-is-homeless-in-the-united-states-a-2025-update Accessed 2 August 2025
[8] The Watson School of International and Public Affairs at Brown University. https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar/costs/humanAccessed 2 August 2025
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